Qualstar, Emulex Push for More and Faster Storage

Qualstar, with an expanded tape library, and Emulex, with more flexible host bus adapters, are aiming to further storage capacity and connectivity.

Qualstar has introduced a modular tape library system that the company claims has greater capacity potential than many others on the market today, and can enable organizations to more quickly access a large pool of data.
The XLS Enterprise Tape Library System, based on Qualstars new Compass Architecture, expands from 140TB to more than 4 petabytes as companies requirements increase.

Expandability comes courtesy of the systems design, consisting of two modules that can be combined. The LRM (Library Resource Module) is a stand-alone tape library that houses up to 655 cartridges and 32 LTO (linear tape-open) tape drives, while the MEM (memory expansion module) holds another 1,075 tapes using LTO-3 technology.

Two MEMs can be attached to one LRM, further increasing capacity. By attaching modules, the system can grow from 355 tapes to more than 6,000 tapes and can support up to 96 tape drives, said William Gervais, president of the Simi Valley, Calif., company.
The tape library is built using Qualstars new Compass Architecture, which uses robotics for much faster access to data in a smaller form factor than typical tape library systems.
According to the company, users of the new tape library can access more than 2,800 tapes while moving an average of just 21 inches horizontally.
Administrators manage the XLS Enterprise Tape Library System using Qualstars X-Link management interface, which offers tools to monitor and manage operations via a touchscreen built into each LRM or remotely via an intranet connection, or through the Internet.
In another storage-related announcement, Emulex of Costa Mesa, Calif., has retrofitted its LightPulse family of HBAs (host bus adapters) to work with the new Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processor 5000 sequence.
Click here to read about Emulexs 4-gig storage switches.
Now outfitted with a driver that supports the new Intel-based processors, Emulex LightPulse HBAs can work with the processors dual-core design within 64-bit computing environments, according to Mike Smith, Emulex executive vice president of worldwide marketing.
To handle mixed workload environments, the LightPulse HBAs offers Dynamic Frame Multiplexing, which allows the HBAs to maximize the efficiency with which the 4G bps link between the server/HBA and switch is used, said Scott McIntyre, vice president of customer marketing and software product management.
"A Fibre Channel exchange is made up of many frames. If a target device is momentarily not capable of receiving any more frames and thus not immediately completing an exchange, the HBA will start transmitting frames for a different exchange, ensuring there are no gaps in data [new Intel] platform, where mixed workloads will be common.
"This type of capability helps ensure maximum I/O performance for those applications," McIntyre said.
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